Posted on May 10, 2013 | by Erin Roach
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (BP) -- A bill that would allow boys who say they
identify as girls to use the girls' restrooms and locker rooms, and vice
versa, passed the California Assembly Thursday (May 9) and now heads to
the state Senate.
AB 1266, which passed largely on a party-line
vote of 45-24, has been touted by supporters as "eliminating obstacles
facing transgender people," but opponents have warned it "mandates San
Francisco values on all California schools."
Under the bill, a
student will be "permitted to participate in sex-segregated school
programs, activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and
competitions," consistent with "his or her gender identity, irrespective
of the gender listed on the pupil's records."
READ MORE AT BAPTIST PRESS
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Doctor Found Guilty of Murder in Philadelphia Abortion Trial
Dave Warner/Reuters
A Philadelphia abortion doctor was found guilty on Monday of murdering three babies during late-term abortions at a clinic serving low-income women.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic, faces the possibility of the death penalty in the case that focused on whether the infants were born alive and then killed.
He was accused of delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords.
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
A Philadelphia abortion doctor was found guilty on Monday of murdering three babies during late-term abortions at a clinic serving low-income women.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic, faces the possibility of the death penalty in the case that focused on whether the infants were born alive and then killed.
He was accused of delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords.
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
When Churches Become Like Country Clubs
Carol Pipes/LifeWay
Nine out of 10 churches in America are declining or growing at a pace slower than the rate of their communities. Churches limp along as members drift out the proverbial back door. So what can church leaders do to stop the exodus? Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources and best-selling author, sees this as a symptom of an underlying problem in most churches.
Rainer suggests American congregations are weak and in decline because church members have lost the biblical understanding of what it means to be part of the body of Christ. People join churches expecting to be served, fed and cared for, he says.
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
Nine out of 10 churches in America are declining or growing at a pace slower than the rate of their communities. Churches limp along as members drift out the proverbial back door. So what can church leaders do to stop the exodus? Thom S. Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources and best-selling author, sees this as a symptom of an underlying problem in most churches.
Rainer suggests American congregations are weak and in decline because church members have lost the biblical understanding of what it means to be part of the body of Christ. People join churches expecting to be served, fed and cared for, he says.
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
A Year Later, Ron Luce Looks Back on Daughter's Deadly Plane Crash
Ron Luce
One year ago, the lives of five families went into chaos. The people who loved, raised and cherished Austin Anderson, Stephen Luth, Garrett Coble, Luke Sheets and my own Hannah were shaken to the very core when we learned that the five of them had been in a plane crash in Kansas.
After discovering that Hannah was the sole survivor and that the four other men who loved God had perished, life for me began to get more complex. Through all the months of Hannah’s recovery—the operations and physical therapy and adjusting to her new world—the question that persists and is still not answered is “Why?”
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
One year ago, the lives of five families went into chaos. The people who loved, raised and cherished Austin Anderson, Stephen Luth, Garrett Coble, Luke Sheets and my own Hannah were shaken to the very core when we learned that the five of them had been in a plane crash in Kansas.
After discovering that Hannah was the sole survivor and that the four other men who loved God had perished, life for me began to get more complex. Through all the months of Hannah’s recovery—the operations and physical therapy and adjusting to her new world—the question that persists and is still not answered is “Why?”
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
How a Small Texas Church Birthed Historic Capitol Hill Prayer Event
Dan Cummins
Three years ago, my church in Bullard, Texas, was very concerned regarding the spiritual and political direction in which we saw America heading. One Wednesday evening, a handful of our members gathered to pray for America. I remember praying a very simple prayer aloud: “Lord, open to us a door to the nation, that somehow we can make a difference.”
Little did any of us realize that night how God would literally answer that simple metaphorical prayer. He opened to a little country church in East Texas the actual door to the Capitol of the United States of America and its most sacred room, the National Statuary Hall.
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
Three years ago, my church in Bullard, Texas, was very concerned regarding the spiritual and political direction in which we saw America heading. One Wednesday evening, a handful of our members gathered to pray for America. I remember praying a very simple prayer aloud: “Lord, open to us a door to the nation, that somehow we can make a difference.”
Little did any of us realize that night how God would literally answer that simple metaphorical prayer. He opened to a little country church in East Texas the actual door to the Capitol of the United States of America and its most sacred room, the National Statuary Hall.
READ MORE AT CHARISMA NEWS
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
28 Nations Pray for USA
Historic Response to 72 Hours of Prayer and Fasting for USA
UNANDERRA, Australia,
May 7, 2013
/Christian Newswire/ -- A world-wide call to pray and fast
for the USA went out from Australia and New Zealand on 25 April 2013
from the team at Australia's National Day of Prayer and Fasting. The
video Call to Prayer can be seen at www.nationaldayofprayer.com.auThe Australian team felt led by God to bridge the US National Day of Repentance on 30 April 2013 www.dayofrepentance.org and the US National Day of Prayer www.nationaldayofprayer.org on 2 May 2013 with a worldwide call for 72 hours of prayer and fasting for the USA. This was humbly and gratefully received by American prayer leaders during a teleconference on 24 April 2013.
David Rowsome, one of the Australian organizers, said, "As we look back we stand amazed at what the Lord has done. The response from around the world to this prayer call surprised us all.
"Jonathan Edwards, the mighty American revivalist of the First Great Awakening and widely acknowledged as America's greatest theologian, wrote in 1740, 'When God has something very great to accomplish for His church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people.'
"We believe this is what we have just witnessed in this world-wide call to prayer. Many media outlets and prayer networks, including several global ones, very quickly took up this call. Confirmed reports from 28 countries around the world have been received and we believe there could very well be many more. We will not know the full response this side of eternity. But God does!"
Australia, France, Myanmar, Samoa, Cameroon, Ghana, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Spain, Cook Islands, Israel, Pakistan, South Africa, England, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam
David Rowsome continued, "A strategic prayer partner was the International House of Prayer Kansas City www.ihopkc.org At short notice they responded with a special focus on America in the times of intercession for three days. The live global web-streaming from the 24/7 Prayer Room captured the heart of the call to prayer. In the atmosphere of continuous worship we saw the faces of many nations as they offered urgent, fervent and heartfelt prayers for the awakening and revival of America.
"Many ministries around the world linked hands. An intercessor from Ireland responded to the call with these words -- 'Yes, God's global army awakes, moves by His Spirit and will glorify His precious Son!' Clearly, God's end-time army is taking its place, preparing for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as promised in Acts 2:17-21. The US National Day of Prayer reached a new and exciting level reporting it as 'the single, largest mobilized effort to prayer in the history of our nation with more than 42,000 events.' We can only believe that God has indeed used 'the extraordinary prayers of His people' around the world to bless America!"
For more information: Ps Matt Prater - 61 433 192 267 Dr Graham McLennan - 61 427 003 549
Warwick Marsh - 61 418 225 212 David Rowsome - 61 734 220 969
New Zealand enquiries: Warren Lyons - 64 272 624 295 www.
Christian Newswire
The Mission Field Brought to Your Living Room
HOPATCONG, N.J., May 8, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- What if you could travel to five continents and visit 60 missionaries as each one told you the story of how God is transforming lives where they serve? What if you had a front row seat in these 60 locations so you could see with your own eyes the utter need these people face every day? What if you could look into the eyes of desperate people and feel their pain -- and sense their hopelessness?
Missionary photojournalist, Brad Guice, enables you to do just that through the pages of his new book, THE CALL TO MISSIONS. Guice, an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in major publications including NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, has spent 19 years on the mission field, between commercial assignments, shooting the images that appear in THE CALL TO MISSIONS. He invested another eight years gathering the missionary testimonies.
Brad shares how God incredibly opened the door for him to go to the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador to visit the Auca Indians (the tribe that killed five missionaries a generation ago): "I bumped into a man on the streets of New Orleans where I had gone to do relief work after Katrina. He mentioned to me that he was a missionary. I told him I was working on a book about the mission field and had just received the testimony from Elizabeth Elliot, wife of one of the murdered missionaries in Ecuador. He told me, 'I am one of only a few people who has access to that tribe.' He agreed to take me to visit the Aucas, and his story also appears in my book." Brad has many more stories as amazing as this one, which he shares whenever he speaks to audiences.
Brad is transitioning into a pastoral role at a satellite congregation of Times Square Church, founded by David Wilkerson, author of the best-selling book, THE CROSS AND THE SWITCHBLADE. Before he went to be with the Lord, David said of Brad and this book, "Each of Brad's photos issues a powerful missionary call. I believe as you peruse these pages you'll find yourself moved.... It is a modern-day look at the Great Commission as told by missionaries themselves."
THE CALL TO MISSIONS, LIVING THE BOOK OF ACTS, by Brad Guice, 256 pages, full-color hardcover, $29.99, www.thecalltomissions.com, bradguice@optonline.net, ISBN: 978-158169-379-9, Published by Evergreen Press christian-publishing.net (2013), Distributed by Ingram/Spring Arbor and Amazon.com.
Christian Newswire
10 Signs of Hope for a Declining Church
By Chuck Lawless , CP Guest Contributor
May 8, 2013|1:53 pm
The question didn't surprise me, but I wasn't ready with an answer. I was a young church consultant, and the church's leadership team had several questions. The one for which I had no answer at the time was, "What characteristics have you seen in churches that seemed to be dying, but that experienced growth after a consultation?" After many more years of consulting, here is my answer today.
1. The leader is preaching the Bible. Numerical growth can occur without preaching the Word, but genuine personal and congregational transformation doesn't happen apart from the Word. The struggling churches I've seen experience healthy change have been led by leaders who preach the Word. They don't compromise on this task, knowing that the Word still changes lives.READ MORE AT THE CHRISTIAN POST
The Thaw
Christianity is being frozen out of the American public square. It is time for a THAW! This is a call to teens across America to "join us" at Reach America to bring Christ back to America!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)